The invention relates in general to devices for spinning hollow, cylindrical tubes and in particular to devices for spinning rocket motor tubes to distribute, evenly, viscous liner material deposited on the interior of the tube.
Rocket motor tubes are lined with a fire retardant liner to prevent the propellant from burning through the tube wall. The rocket tubes are, for example, about three feet long and two to three inches in diameter. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/927,647 filed on Aug. 25, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,163,584, entitled “Apparatus For Applying Liquid Liner To Rocket Tube,” having the same inventor as the present application, discloses an apparatus for dispensing a continuous bead of liner into a rocket motor tube. The contents of the above noted previous application are hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
After depositing the continuous bead of liner in the rocket tube, the liner must be spread around to cover the interior of the rocket tube. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/985,064 filed on Nov. 10, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,029,534, entitled “Apparatus for Spreading Liquid Liner in Rocket Tube,” having the same inventor as the present application, discloses a brushing apparatus for spreading viscous liner over the interior of a rocket motor tube. The contents of the above noted previous application are hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
After the brushing operation that spreads the liner, the present invention is used to spin the tubes to uniformly distribute the liner on the interior of the tube. The spinning operation uses centrifugal force to form a uniform layer of liner on the interior of the tube.